The problem is expanded in any translations. Most readers have been puzzled at times by variant Bible translations. Oversimplified, the typical explanation is whether to make a literal translation or a "dynamic" one, in which the problems in the article are a good example. The New American is very literal, and The Message is a very loose paraphrase. The latter is valuable in reading large chunks of material, while the more literal is more precise in studying what the author actually meant. The most common currently used translation, The New International Version, blends the two, falling more toward the literal, but not so much as to make it stilted like the ASV.

Similar is the problem of translating songs. In most of my language classes, we were taught Christmas Carols. It's still fascinating to see the difference in meaning between the English and the other one. Presumably Stille Nacht words are the originals, since Gruber was German. But directly comparing the original with English or Spanish gives varying degrees of fidelity. Of course, in music they are also dealing with the rhythm and rhyme, which adds to the difficulty.